North Point Church Upgrades Main Auditorium to Meyer Sound MICA

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Photo credit: Jake Sublett

"We were struggling with coverage in that room. We needed a system that would fix those issues, and since we've been very happy with what we'd heard at the other two campuses, the obvious choice was to continue with Meyer Sound."

- Micah StevensDirector of Production, North Point Ministries

After installing Meyer Sound reinforcement systems at two newer branch campuses, North Point Community Church has followed suit at its main campus in Alpharetta, Ga. by replacing the 12-year-old system in the 2,700-seat East Auditorium with a new system based on Meyer Sound MICA line array loudspeakers.

"We were struggling with coverage in that room," admits Micah Stevens, director of production for North Point Ministries. "We needed a system that would fix those issues, and since we've been very happy with what we'd heard at the other two campuses, the obvious choice was to continue with Meyer Sound."

As with the earlier systems at North Point's Buckhead and Browns Bridge campuses, audio system design and installation was entrusted to Clark (formerly Clark ProMedia), also in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta. According to the company's principal designer, George Clark, the time had come to "bring the main campus up to par and conform to the experience at the newer satellite locations."

To realize seamless, concert-quality coverage throughout the wide auditorium, Clark built his design around twin hangs of seven each MICA line array loudspeakers. Main arrays are augmented by four DF-4 loudspeakers as down fill, ten M1D line array loudspeakers as front fill, two MSL-4 loudspeakers and three UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers as side fill, and five UPQ-1P loudspeakers for balcony fill. System drive and processing is handled by a Galileo loudspeaker management system with three Galileo 616 processors.

Bass reproduction was a tricky proposition, as North Point has a somewhat newer West Auditorium built back-to-back against the East Auditorium. Services are held in both at the same time, each with its own music teams, with teaching pastor Andy Stanley's message presented live in one and via HD video in the other. To eliminate bass bleed back into the West Auditorium, Clark specified ten M3D-Sub directional subwoofers to maintain a cardioid coverage pattern down to 30 Hz.

"It was a remarkable difference, moving from the old system to the new," observes George Clark. "The low end is now tighter and more defined. Listening to the same genre of music you can hear striking improvements in clarity and balanced tonality."

For Micah Stevens, the Meyer Sound line arrays at all three campuses help provide a consistent listening experience regardless of where a first-time visitor may attend. "The systems are different sizes and configurations, but they all share a common sonic signature. That makes it easier for us to develop a consistent sound for the music, and for the teaching segment by Andy Stanley—whether he's there in person or via video from one of the remote campuses."

North Point's Browns Bridge campus, opened in late 2006, relies on a system anchored by 26 M'elodie line array loudspeakers to cover the 2,100 seat auditorium. Opened the following year, the ministry's 3,100-seat Buckhead Church features 33 MICA line array loudspeakers. An upgrade of the original system in the 2,500-seat West Auditorium in Alpharetta is now in the preliminary planning stage.